The start of the year is generally one of reflection for most people so let’s lasso this energy and take a look at what’s important to you. With the never-ending stampede that is Covid we have had to take a long hard look at how we are living out our one and precious life. Are you living paycheck to paycheck? Are you at work more than you are at home? Anxiety becoming a daily thing? Feeling like a slug most days all spongy and slow? Do you get to stop to smell the roses or are they a blur of colour as you rapidly pass by?
When it comes to reflection and goal setting, we must consider our values and what makes us excited to make changes in our lives otherwise our goals are like gluten to the gluten intolerant, it just won’t sit right.
There are multiple areas to contemplate:
Body
Mind
Soul
Relationships
Wealth
Career
Each goal you set, must add value to your life and you don’t have to set a goal for each one of these areas. Take it at your own pace, there is no timeline but your own. If you want to take on one goal at a time – more power to ya! If you want to take on the world all at the same time – do it! If you want to don sparkly stiletto heels and a feather boa and dance about the dining room singing and dancing to the Spice Girls – invite us over cos same!
Having a goal can be that ‘something’ you look forward to in the future since life has become so much smaller for a lot of people the usual things to look forward to, like travel, have been taken off the table. For Goals to be successful visualise success from the outset. Pace them out in little chunks. Approaching what you want to achieve in small steps make things less scary, easy to stay accountable and as you complete each step that sense of accomplishment can help propel you forward towards your main goal. Another tip to helping you stay on track, which is based in science, but seems counterintuitive, is visualise failure and its consequences. This is typically what we are not encouraged to do so I can imagine there are many screwed up faces with you all thinking ‘What the hey?!’ but research has shown that foreshadowing failure of what could happen if you take Action A instead of Action B can almost double the probability of you reaching and achieving your goals. If your Goal is Money related, what will happen if the Emergency Fund you have been working hard on increasing you decide on a whim to suddenly spend. You will look back at that point and realise you could have had so much more in that account by this time if you had not spent it, the realization you now are going to have to push your goal timeframe out further to achieve the amount you wanted, and you can’t free up that amount of money you are putting towards creating a healthy Emergency fund until much later on. If you goal is Fitness focused, what will happen if you don’t go to your cardio class, cancel your personal trainer appointment, or blow of your Walking Date with your friend? There will be negative health outcomes, the ‘look good and feeling great’ component of this type of goal won’t come to fruition and there’s the inevitable disappointment in yourself. If you have at the front of your mind how bad its going to feel if you fail and the not so great consequences, the more motivated you become in the pursuit of your goals.
We wish you luck with your reflections and grab our free downloadable for Goal Setting if you think it would help channel your thoughts and keep you accountable.
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